USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 3
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Mr. Chandler was born on a farm near the present city of Adrian in Lenawee county, this state, on November 29, 1843. He is a son of Thomas and Jane (Merritt) Chandler, the former born near Philadel- phia in 1806 and the latter in the state of New York. The father died in 1881 and the mother in 1898 at the age of eighty-four years. They were married in Michigan, and became the parents of three children, two of whom are living, the subject of this brief review and his brother William G. William Chandler is one of the most prominent men of northern Michigan and a leading citizen of Sault Ste. Marie.
The father lost his mother when he was but three years old and his father only nine years later. He was the second of their three children, the others being his sister Elizabeth and his brother William G. Eliza- beth Margaret Chandler was a very active Abolitionist and a volumin- ous writer for the early Abolition papers in both prose and poetry.
Thomas Chandler came to Michigan in 1829 and located in the wild- erness on unbroken land near the site of the present thriving and at- tractive city of Adrian in Lenawee county. According to the custom and necessities of the time and locality, he put up a little log honse and redeemed from the waste a tract of land which in time, under his assiduous and skillful labor, became a fine farm. On this he passed the remainder of his days, prospering in a worldly way, giving dne atten- tion to the development of the country around him and the direction of its public affairs, and rising to a high place in the estimation of the people. He was first an Abolitionist and later a Republican in politics.
Ilis son Merritt was educated in the common schools and at Raisin Valley seminary, a well-known Quaker institution of learning in south- ern Michigan, and at the age of twenty-six started out in the world solely on his own resources. He lumbered in Cass county until the winter of 1874-5, then transferred his base of operations to Cheboygan, where he lived until he moved his family to Onaway in 1886, having built a dwelling for himself here two years before. He was the first storekeeper in Onaway, having his store in his residence for a time and later in a building ereeted for the purpose, which was destroyed by
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fire. After this disaster he built the structure now occupied by his extensive and progressive business in the mereantile line.
In 1879 Mr. Chandler secured a contract to build state roads, his first undertaking in this direction being the highway from Petoskey to Presque, Isle, a distance of seventy-eight miles. Afterward he built the Allis road, seventeen miles long, from Black lake to the southeast corner of Allis township. These roads were built according to the standard of excellence Mr. Chandler sets for himself in all depart- ments of his work, and as compensation for his services the state ceded him about forty thousand acres of timber land, distributed throughout the northern counties but chiefly in the neighborhood of Onaway.
He has sold about ten thousand acres of this land, and is gradually disposing of more. It is covered with fine hardwood timber, and as fast as this is cleared off he offers the land for sale for farming pur- poses, giving new settlers every possible inducement to locate on it. Ile has held his lumber at almost prohibitive prices for outside pur- chasers and sold it at reasonable rates to local manufacturers, or those who could thereby be induced to locate in this vicinity. In this way he has helped more than any one other man to build up Onaway and give it the progressive impulse which distinguishes it. In fact, he is the father of Onaway, and, as has been noted, gave the town its name. Ile selected the word "Onaway" from Longfellow's "Hiawatha" because it means "awake, " and signifies the kind of city he hoped to build and foster into practical realization of the meaning its name expresses. From the start he has watched over the child of his ereation, spending his time and money freely to aid in its growth and improvement and make it what he wished it to be. His labors were potential in bringing the railroad to the city, he was the prime mover in the erection of the opera house and he built the Chandler House, and he and Mrs. Chandler were the leading ones in founding and erecting the Friends' Meeting Ilonse, and in many other ways he has been the chief impulse to progress in the community and the surrounding country.
For many years Mr. Chandler was too busy to give attention to farming, but he is now actively engaged in that interesting and stimu- lating pursuit on a large scale. Ile cultivates about one thousand acres of cleared land according to the most approved modern methods, and carries on extensive operations in producing high bred live stock. llere- ford eattle, Percheron horses and standard breeds of sheep. Ile has on his farm one hundred head of these fine cattle, about forty superior horses and colts of his admired strain and some three hundred and fifty sheep of high grade and lofty blood. In breeding this high class stock he has been engaged during the last ten years, and his products have won the most elevated standing in the markets everywhere throughout the country within the range of his shipments.
Mr. Chandler was one of the organizers of the Onaway Dairy Products Company and is its vice president. Ile was also one of the originators of the Guernsey Breeders' Association, and founded the town of Onaway in 1892. It was chiefly through his efforts that the Detroit & Mackinac railroad was built through the town in 1901. Al-
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ways progressive in his farming operations, he was the first man to raise alfalfa in Presque Isle county, beginning it about five years ago. Since then many advanced farmers have followed his example in this respect greatly to their own advantage and the benefit of the county. With a deep and abiding interest in the welfare of his community, and at all times willing to make his interest practical and effective for the good of the people, he gave ten thousand dollars toward the erection of a city hall and court house in the same building, and in this now three terms of court are held every year.
In politics Mr. Chandler is a Republican and renders his party efficient service. Ile is not ambitious to hold office, but waived his aversion to the cares of official station and served as a member of the state constitutional convention, and in that body distinguished him- self by his general intelligence, his readiness in expressing his views, his force in defending them and his devotion to the interests of the people.
In 1866 Mr. Chandler was united in marriage with Miss Rachel Shaw, who was born in Ohio, from whence the family later migrated to Michigan. She is a daughter of Nathan and Miriam (James) Shaw, natives of Ohio and both now deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Chandler have had but one child, their son Lewis, who died in infancy. But they have three adopted children : Annie, the wife of John Bevens, who is living in California; George, who is in business with his adopted father in Onaway, and William, who is a resident of the state of Oregon. They are all creditable to their foster parents and esteemed as among the best citizens of the communities in which they have their homes.
ALBERT TRACY LAY, now venerable in years, is one of the few sur- viving members of the famous "old guard" to whose well directed ener- gies in the early days, was due the development of the magnificent tim- ber resources of northern Michigan, and his operations in connection with the lumbering industry have continued during a period of fully sixty years,-operations of the broadest scope and importance. He was one of the pioneers who realized the great value of the untrammeled pine forests of this section of the state and here he began operations when the entire "upper country" was but little more than a wilder- ness. He was the virtual founder of the present attractive and thriving metropolis and judicial center of Grand Traverse county, Traverse C'ity, and his splendid powers were brought into most effective play in furthering the civic and material development and npbuilding of north- ern Michigan. To him and others of the pioneer lumbermen of north- ern Michigan, the state must ever accord a debt of honor and apprecia- tion, and no work purporting to touch the history of the now opulent and progressive upper portion of this commonwealth can be consistent with itself if there is failure to give special recognition to the honored gentleman whose name initiates this paragraph. For many years Mr. Lay has maintained his business headquarters in the city of Chicago, and his beautiful home is located in Highland Park, one of the most attractive suburbs of the great western metropolis.
2) Lay)
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Albert Tracy Lay claims the fine old Empire state of the Union as the place of his nativity and the family of which he is a scion was there founded in the pioneer epoch, the while the name has been identified with the annals of American history since the colonial days, the orig- inal representative of the same having come from England and estab- lished homes in New England. Mr. Lay was born at Batavia, the cap- ital of Genesee county, New York, on the 18th of June, 1825, and thus he is eighty-six years of age at the time of the publication of this his- torical work. He is a son of George W. and Olive (Foote) Lay, the former of whom was born in Catskill, New York, and the latter in Tolland, Connecticut. The father was summoned to the life eternal at the age of sixty years and the mother was sixty-one years of age at the time of her death. They became the parents of three children, all sons, and of the number the subject of this review is the only one now living. George W. Lay was a man of exceptional intellectual and professional ability and was a factor of prominence and influence in public affairs of national scope. He was numbered among the representative mem- bers of the bar of his native state and continued to be engaged in the work of his profession at Batavia, Genesee county, until his death. He represented his district in the national congress from 1833 to 1837, and from 1839 to 1842 he was a member of the state legislature of New York. In the latter year he was appointed Chargé d' Affaires to Swe- len, of which diplomatie post he continued incumbent until 1845. In politics he accorded an unwavering allegiance to the Whig party, under the "old-line" regime, and both he and his wife were earnest communi- cants of the Episcopal church.
A. Tracy Lay is indebted to the schools of Batavia and Geneseo, New York, for his early educational discipline, and when but sixteen years of age, he began his business career as clerk in a country store in his native town in April, 1841, and he served in that capacity for three years when he was made manager of the store, and was thus engaged until October, 1849, when he came to the west and established his home in Chicago, which then gave slight indication of becoming the great metropolis which it is to-day. In the spring of the following year he engaged in the lumber business at the corner of Canal and Jackson streets, Chicago, and at this time was formed his partnership with the late Perry Hannah, with whom he continued to be associated in great business enterprises for many years-the alliance being terminated only by the death of his honored confrere and friend. Operations in Chicago were instituted under the firm name of Hannah, Lay & Com- pany, and in April, 1851, the firm purchased a saw mill and a tract of pine land in Omena county, Michigan, which then included the greater part of the present counties of Grand Traverse and Leelanau. The mill and a considerable portion of the land thus purchased were within the present corporate limits of Traverse City Payment for the prop- erty was made in gold, to Harris Boardman, of Napierville, Illinois. and there is much of significance in the statement that the compensation thus given for the mill and three hundred acres of pine land was only seven hundred dollars. On April 20, 1851, Mr. Hannah embarked at Chicago, on the schooner Venus, with the gold in his possession to pay
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for this newly purchased property, and set sail for what is now Traverse City. Mr. Lay went to Traverse City a few months later-namely Au- gust 28, 1851, sailing on the schooner, L. P. Hilliard. After supervising the erection of a new saw-mill, Mr. Lay started forth on foot, in October of the same year, for Old Mission, twenty miles distant, and from that point he proceeded in a row boat a distance of ten miles up the shore of Lake Michigan to Northport. He passed one night on the lake shore, sleeping in his blanket, then rowed a boat to Cathead, and from there to North Manitou Island where he secured transportation on the steamer Acme, by which he had passage to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whence he proceeded by steamer Traveler of the Goodrich line to Chicago in which city he arrived late in October. In the following month he left Chicago on the schooner Newbold, with supplies for the firm's new store to be conducted in connection with the lumber camp and saw mill in what is now Traverse City. The vessel had a tempestuous voyage, and was reported lost, but it finally reached its destination, after having run into South Manitou for shelter. Mr. Lay recalls in appreciative remi- niscence that his thanksgiving dinner was eaten on the little schooner and that the none too Epicurean repast consisted of white fish and beans. He did not return to Chicago until the middle of December.
From 1853 to 1857 inclusive, Mr. Lay passed the mouths from April to October in northern Michigan, where he had supervision of the firm's various business activities. In 1853 he went to the city of Wash- ington and, by proper immunities, succeeded in securing the establish- ment of a postoffice at Traverse City, which was then a mere lumbering town, consisting of a few primitive log buildings and board "shacks." and having a population of not more than one hundred persons. Ile himself had given to the place the name of Traverse, and by this title the postoffice was designated. The present name was adopted a num- ber of years later, upon the incorporation of the town and the institu- tion of a municipal government. To the efforts of Mr. Lay was due the establishing of the mail route from Traverse City to Manistee. Hle secured the contract for carrying the mail between Traverse City and Manistee, at the rate of four hundred dollars a year for the four years covered by said contract. He then employed an Indian, known as Joe, to carry the mail on his back between the two towns, and this Indian made the journeys on foot over a trail "blazed" through the forests, by means of eutting bark from the trees to indicate the route. "Joe" made the trip each week, covering a total distance of about seventy miles, and his only acknowledgment of fatigue was the laconic expres- sion, occasionally uttered, "Indian sick in the legs." Mr. Lay assumed this contract in 1853 and Dr. Goodale was appointed the first postmas- ter of Traverse City in the same year, the office being located in the old log store of Hannah, Lay & Company, this primitive business place constituting the chief source of supplies for the community. In 1853, assisted by a civil engineer named Whelpley, Mr. Lay laid out the town of Traverse City, and thus became, as before stated, the virtual founder of this prosperous municipality. In the same year was effected the segregation and formal organization of Grand Traverse county, and the first court was held the same year in the village of Traverse, which
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was designated as the county-seat. Over this primitive tribunal pre- sided Judge Martin of Grand Rapids, and in order to obtain a jury at the trial of a man for murder, the mill had to be shut down.
Mr. Lay has given his influence and liberal co-operation to all meas- ures and enterprises that have compassed the development and upbuild- ing of Grand Traverse county and its attractive metropolis, and his capitalistic interests in this section of the state are still of wide scope and importance. He and his long-time associate, Mr. Hannah, were numbered among the most prominent and extensive representatives of the great lumber industry of northern Michigan during practically the entire period through which the same was the principal line of enter- prise in this region, and he and his associate at the present time still have valuable interests in this field of enterprise. Since 1857 Mr. Lay has maintained his home in Chicago, or its delightful suburb, Highland Park, and in the western metropolis he makes daily visits to his office in the Chamber of Commerce building, at 133 West Washington street, -a fact that shows that, though venerable in age, he retains his mental and physical powers practically unimpaired. He has achieved a large and worthy success, and his name has ever stood as the exponent of integrity and honor, so that no blemish rests on the record of his long and productive career as a man of affairs. His capitalistic interests are wide and varied and he is one of the many sterling business men whose substantial prosperity had its basis in the great lumber industry of Michigan. He is president of the Chamber of Commerce Safety Vault Company, and is also president of the following companies: the Han- nah-Lay Company, the Hannah & Lay Company, and the Hannah-Lay Mercantile Company, all of which are represented by large interests in northern Michigan and especially in Traverse City and Grand Traverse county. In 1880 Mr. Lay became one of the organizers and incorpora- tors of the State Bank of Traverse City, and he is president of this sub- stantial and popular financial institution at the present time.
In politics Mr. Lay originally gave his support to the Whig party, and he recalls with gratification that in the interests of this party he organized, at Batavia, New York, when a young man a Zachary Taylor Club, and that later he had the privilege of attending the inauguration of Mr. Taylor as president of the United States, on the 5th of March, 1849. Upon the organization of the Republican party Mr. Lay trans- ferred his allegiance to the same, and he has since continued a stalwart advocate of its principles and policies. Mr. Lay is a zealous communi- cant of the Protestant Episcopal church, in which he holds membership in the parish of Grace church, at Chicago, his home city. He is a mem- ber of the Chicago Historical Society in the same city, is also identified with the Union League Club and the Church Club of that diocese of the Protestant Episcopal church, while in his own suburban city he is a member of the Highland Park Club. He has led a busy and useful life, but has never permitted its boundaries to be circumscribed by mere self-aggrandizement, as he has had appreciation of the higher ideals of human existence and has shown a due sense of his stewardship. His contributions to worthy charities and benevolences have been liberal and invariably nnostentatious, and he is one of whom it may justly be
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said that he would "do good by stealth and blush to find it fame." He stands as a true type of American manhood, and now that the shadows of his life lengthen far from the sunset gates of the west, he may well feel that he has played well his part as one of the world's workers.
At Batavia, New York, on the 20th of February, 1855, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Lay to Miss Catherine Smith, who was there born and reared and who was a daughter of Rev. Lucius Smith, rector of St. James Episcopal church of Batavia, New York, and a representa- tive citizen of Genesee county. Mrs. Lay, a woman of most gracious personality, and a devoted wife and mother, was summoned to the life eternal on the 27th of February, 1907, and her memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence. Mr. and Mrs. Lay became the parents of four daughters, of whom two are living,-Olive, who is the wife of Colonel Charles A. H. McCauley, of the United States army, and Catherine, who is the wife of R. Floyd Clinch, a representative business man of Chieago.
ORVILLE DENNIS .- Life is a voyage, in the progress of which we are perpetually changing our seenes. Orville Dennis has arrived at a port where he can stop a while and look back at that part of the voyage he has already passed. He has seen the good and the evil that are in the world, the ups and downs, and he has learned to be uncensorions, hu- mane. He has learned to attribute the hest motives to every action and to be chary of imputing a sweeping and eruel blame. He has no finger of scorn to point at anything under the sun. Along with this pleasant blandness and charity there is a certain grave, serious humor. From this same port he can see an expanse of waters covered with a mist. If there are rocks ahead he cannot see them. If there are whirlpools he hopes to be able to avoid them by steering his boat with the same steady hand which has been his salvation in the past.
Putting metaphor on one side, Orville Dennis was born in Milton township, Cass eounty, Michigan, Mareh 28, 1873. His father, Cassius M. Dennis, was an eastern man, where he received his education. He married Miss Alphonzy Hopkins, whose family originally came from Delaware. Mr. Dennis was a farmer for many years in Milton and later moved to Edwardsburg, Cass eounty, and engaged in the hardware business.
Orville went with his parents to Edwardsburg, Michigan, where he attended the village schools, having only been to sehool a very short time in the district school of Milton. Next he attended the district school in Richmond township, Osceola county, where he had moved with his mother. She was very desirous of his obtaining a good education, realiz- ing that it was a capital which would stand him in good stead wherever he might find himself placed.
Ile attended the high school at Reed City, Michigan, from which he graduated in 1890, at the age of seventeen. This was doing remarkably well, as he had not attended high school the full year while he lived on the farm in Richmond township and then, too, he taught for one term before he graduated. During his senior year he had made up his mind that he should like to be a lawyer. To that end, after his gradua-
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tion, he entered the law office of S. Wesselius of Grand Rapids, Michi- gan. He did not, however, remain but one year, as he was offered the school at Dighton, Michigan, and he needed the money. He taught at Dighton for a year, after which he tanght for another year at Prosper. He had shown himself such an excellent organizer and such a wise disciplinarian that he was offered the position of principal of Tustin. He held this position for one year, at the end of which time he felt a desire to enter the journalistic field. He entered into partnership with W. R. Frantz and together they purchased the McBain Chronicle from Mr. L. VanMeter. Soon after the purchase of the paper Mr. Frantz died, whereupon Mr. Dennis bought out his partner's interest from the estate. He conducted the paper alone until 1897 and showed marked ability as a journalist. In 1897 he sold the paper to Mr. Charles R. Burleson and purchased from Mr. L. VanMeter the Missaukee Republi- can, a paper published at Lake City. He still owns and edits this paper.
While still at MeBain, the principal of the high school died, and the school board, knowing of Mr. Dennis' pedagogical snecess, induced him to finish out the year as principal. Judge Dennis has never lost his in- terest in educational work, realizing that it is the training of the child that makes or mars a nation.
On June 8, 1898, Mr. Dennis married Miss Mabel Marks, of MeBain. She was born in Ohio, her parents being also natives of that state. Her father, Willis F. Marks, served in an Ohio regiment during the Civil war. He married Celestia Henning. After the close of the war Mr. and Mrs. Marks came to Michigan and located on a farm, but later they moved into the town of McBain, where Miss Marks taught for several years before her marriage. Judge and Mrs. Dennis have one child. Harold, born October 19, 1905.
The Judge's political career has been varied. It is needless to say he is a Republican. While he was at McBain he was township clerk and also treasurer of the village of McBain. For two terms he was a member of the board of county school examiners of Missaukee county. In November, 1900, he was elected a member of the Michigan legislature for the district composed of Wexford, Clare and Missaukee counties. During this term this distriet was changed so as to comprise Missankee and Kalkaska counties. In 1902 he was again elected to the legislature in the reconstructed district, being nominated without opposition. In both elections he received the largest vote in the county of Missaukee of any candidate that had no opposition. During his first term as a iem- ber of the legislature he was a member of the committee on Marquette prison, the committee on state printing and also served on other leading committees. During his second term he was again placed on the eom- mittee on the Marquette prison and had done such efficient work during his previous service that he was appointed chairman, and received other very important committee appointments. In November, 1904, he was elected judge of the Probate Court for Missaukee county. His service in this office being so exceptionally good. in 1908 he was again elected to the same position, being the first man in the history of the county to receive a second nomination and election to the office of judge of pro- bate for the county. Mr. Dennis has served for three consecutive terms
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